India’s talented spinner Washington Sundar is specialized to bowl in the powerplay overs but he was not used in the first T20I in the first six overs by skipper Virat Kohli.
Sundar was handed over the new ball in the second over of the second T20I and he was able to keep the England batsmen at bay as he bowled a tight line and length.
Sundar then came back in his second spell and took crucial wickets of well-settled and dangerous-looking Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow. Those two wickets got the hosts right on top as India was able to hold England to a below-par score of 164 runs in the second T20I at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Sunday.
Sundar finished with figures of 2-29 in his quota of four overs and he did a fine job. Debutant Ishan Kishan and Virat Kohli then combined to put an alliance of 94 runs to help the team chase down the target with 13 balls to spare and seven wickets in hand.
Washington Sundar said after the match, “This was a better wicket than the first T20I, we did a good job to keep it down. Very good to win such a game. There was a bit of dew as well. There is a lot of pressure to bowl in the powerplay, but that gives a lot of satisfaction. Virat and I had a chat about Bairstow and thought about taking the pace off the ball because he was going hard early, so we decided to take pace off the ball. We didn’t talk much about the loss, we knew where we had to improve, and wanted to play together and we might have a one-off game. Kudos to the way played in the first game, but how we bounce back is important. Very happy for Ishan and Pant and the way they have turned up for India”.
India had lost the first T20I by eight wickets but bounced back in style in the second game. The bowlers did a perfect job after skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to bowl first. The Indian seamers also did good work in the fag end of the innings as they conceded only 35 runs in the last five overs to keep England in check.
The hosts then lost the early wicket of their opener, KL Rahul, for nothing but Ishan Kishan took the attack to the opposition in his debut match and played fearlessly. Thus, the left-hander was also awarded the Player of the match for his superb knock of 56 runs from 32 balls. The southpaw scored five fours and four sixes in his blistering knock as he timed the ball to perfection.
The series is now tied 1-1 and the third T20I will be played at the same venue on Tuesday.
